Part IV - Chapter 16

1. List three ways that tailoring options increase the flexibility of a standard process.

• Tailoring provides the flexibility required to modify a standard process to adjust for differences among projects. Together, a standard process and tailoring options reduce the risk of developing software that must satisfy different requirements. The standard process provides a common understanding of processes, roles, and responsibilities; tailoring provides the advantage of flexibility for disparate projects.

2. What are the benefits of a minimum standard risk management process?

• A minimum standard risk management process provides a common set of metrics that enable project comparisons. At the organizational level, project comparisons provide visibility into progress so that intelligent decisions can be made. Allocation of staff resources among projects is one such decision made at the organizational level. The minimum standard process can be visualized as a process kernel, with the kernel defining the areas that need to be standardized to leverage knowledge between projects.

3. List five outputs of the risk management process that you should standardize.

• The following risk management process outputs should be standardized:

• a. Risk statement. The standardization of how to communicate a risk can promote understanding between the project team and the rest of the organization.

• b. Risk list. The format of a risk list that shows the key issues facing a project can help management see common themes to address on all projects.

• c. Risk action plan. The attributes of an action plan should be consistent, to promote completeness and reuse of successful plans across the organization.

• d. Risk measures. The standard definitions of risk measures enable organizational risk metrics and consistent communication to senior management.

• e. Risk database. The project risk database should easily merge into an organizational database to retain lesions learned in corporate memory.

4. Give an example of a tailoring option for each process element of the risk management process.

5. Discuss three factors that you can use to describe your project’s need for risk management.

• The three factors used to differentiate risk management on projects are most important:

• a. Size. Your risk is low if your project size is small (fewer than ten people).

• b. Budget. Your risk is high if your budget is tight on your contract is fixed price.

• c. Structure. Risk increases as a function of the number of interfaces within the project organization structure. Your risk is high if your project has no organization chart that defines the channels of communication.

• There are other factors as well that can be used to differentiate risk management on projects:

• a. Life cycle model. If your project life cycle model is the Grand Design (a do-each-step-once strategy), your risk is high that you may not understand requirements well enough to deliver all capabilities at once. If the model is Incremental (a strategy that adds functionality to the existing system), your risk is high if your requirements are unclear or you expect rapid changes in mission technology. If the model is Evolutionary (a strategy that iteratively refines the total system), your risk is moderate if your user prefers all capabilities at the first delivery.

• b. Software development process. If your project does not follow a documented software development process, your risk is high.

• c. Level of automation. Your risk is high if your development tool set is new or not integrated throughout the life cycle. A lack of automation on large systems is also high risk.

6. You are responsible for tailoring the standard risk management process for your project. What is your process for determining your recommendations?

• Here is how I would determine my recommendations:

• a. A better process is preferred because it is more stable to the project needs. For example, a method may be preferred because it is familiar and will not require time for training.

• b. A faster process takes less time to implement. For example, an automated tool might expedite the process.

• c. A cheaper process is reduced cost. When a process is economical, the return increases.

7. In what ways do you consider your current project unique?

• The current project I am working on is unique in many ways. First off it is strictly for the military. It has a limited amount of users but fills an important role in the sustainability of our nation’s defense. The application tracks and updates the status of missile assets in the Air Force. It then updates our reliability database which has all the history for these assets. The program offices and contractors use this information to track trends and reliability of the different missile systems that use this system.

8. Discuss what might happen if you could not tailor the standard process.

• The standard process is something that is defined and reused may times. It is changed and modified through its lifetime as it needs to be changed. Every project has some special component that could not be accounted for in the standard process and must be enhanced. There is also the case when the standard process has components that don’t apply to the current system and need to be omitted. If you were unable to tailor the process it would be very cumbersome to work with.

• There could be for example a process that states that all products must be function checked as a part of the quality process. That works great for electronics or other types of equipment. What if you tried to apply this to an explosives item? If you function check it the item is destroyed thus defeating the whole process. What happens in this scenario you should tailor the standard process to state a sample size of the items will be function checked to ensure the item functions as designed.

9. List five reasons that you should document the proposed deviations from a standard process.

• Here are the five reasons to document proposed deviations:

• a. It helps projects customize the standardized plan.

• b. You have the information from the person that made the suggestion.

• c. There is traceability.

• d. It encourages suggestions because it is easy to fill out a standard form.

• e. They help promote support and commitment from the organization management.

10. Do you think a defined software process should permit adjustment to unique project needs? Discuss why you do or do not think so.

• Most definitely a software process should permit adjustments to unique project needs. Every project will bring it own unique set of challenges that need to be implemented. If every software project followed a standard model than most software projects would finish on time and budget. But, that is not the case in most software processes. Because of the uniqueness of software products there is no standard process. There will always be something new to add or use. This is why software development is such a challenge.

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